Apparatus for the fluid treatment of running lengths of material



April 14, 1964 Filed April 15. 1961 A. GI APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF RUNNING LENGTHS OF MATERIAL 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Apnl 14, 1964 A. GIANI 3,128,616

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APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF RUNNING LENGTHS OF MATERIAL Filed April 15. 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent 3,128,616 APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF RUNNING LENGTHS 0F MATERIAL Adolfo Giani, Bergamo, Italy, assignor to Reggiani S.p.A., Bergamo, Italy Filed Apr. 13, 1961, Ser. No. 102,871 Claims priority, application Italy Nov. 1?, 1960 1 Claim. (c1. 68-62) This invention refers to a system and plant for the breadth-washing of material in tape-shape, in general, and in particular of fabrics.

In order better to illustrate the objects of the present invention, the fundamentals are being briefly reviewed upon which known installations are based and have been built and the use thereof in the practice of the breadthwashing of fabrics. In every case there is made available a vat filled with water or treating liquid, on the bottom whereof are provided rollers for guiding the fabric while an equal number of rollers are counterposed to them in the upper portion, immersed into the bath or not, at the builders will. As a rule, four, five or six such units of vats are put in series, according to the speed of the fabric as well as to the washing effect needed. Squeezer rolls between one vat and the subsequent one drag the fabric along and adjust its tension within the possible limits through oscillating compensating rollers, which in turn act upon field rheostats of direct current motors or upon speed variators. Experience has shown that systems like the one above described determine the following disadvantages:

Since the liquid contained in the vat is not moved, at slow running speeds of the fabric it is not possible to obtain any appreciable washing effect. To attain a minimum result it is necessary to increase the speed of the fabric until obtaining a relative bath-fabric movement sufficient to generate a local turbulence on the surface of said fabric, this being a basic preliminary condition of any washing process.

However, by increasing the running speed of the fabric, there follows a reduction of the treating time per unitvat (booster); hence it becomes necessary to put a number of units in series to attain complete washing of the material processed.

To summarize, such conventional plants have the characteristic of having to run on at a relatively high minimum speed and to have a plurality of units in series. Such inflexibility of use involves in many cases, specifically for small and medium size enterprises, where no high production is required, elevated costs of installation accompanied by a low coefficient of operating efficiency of the said machine.

Some builders, being well aware of the above mentioned limitations, have attempted to superimpose on the basic washing effect due to the friction between the material treated and the liquid, a further effect by means of beating swifts, elliptic heaters, and other members adapted to subject the tape material to beats in the presence of the bath liquid.

Others have utilized the bath through which the material to be treated passes, as a means for propagating vibrations, thinking of thereby enhancing the washing effect. Independently of the results so obtained, it can be remarked that such methods which are kinematically of oscillating and pulsatory character, subject the respective members to dynamic stresses and to wear and tear prejudicial to the attaining of an elevated working speed and of a long life duration of the machines.

On that basis, the objects of the present invention are:

(a) To provide a machine ensuring a specific washing capacity substantially independent of the speed of the tape of material to be treated;

3,128,616 Patented Apr. 14., 1964 (b) To provide a series of means which, under the conditions of point (a), permit to obtain to maximum degree, through the relative movement of the tape and liquid, a friction effect (and consequently an effect of local turbulence at the surface of the material) between said two elements;

(c) Particular means in addition to the turbulency consequential of the friction between tape and liquid, are by themselves generators of turbulence and thereby contribute to enhance the washing effect.

The object of the invention according to paragraphs (a) and (b), is obtained by a method and respective machine wherein the tape to be washed is brought to contact with the liquid constituting the treating bath within a long and narrow channel, through which the tape is made to pass, while the liquid is in turn endowed with a speed of passage of its own through said channel, relative to that of the tape and independently thereof. The object of paragraph (c) is attained by throttling means provided in said channel.

In the accompanying drawings there is illustrated a machine according to the invention, given by way of example. In said drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation view, with parts broken awa of a single unit machine embodying the invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view of an inset of a detail of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view thereof;

FIGURE 4 is the diagrammatical representation of a three-units machine.

There is shown in FIG. 1 is a vertical hollow channel K having a useful inner diameter of appoximately 40 mm. and the width of said channel depends on that of the tape to be treated. The construction indicated is provided for instance for a width of tape of from to cm. approximately (see FIG. 2).

The height'of the channel K is for instance of about 2 metres, which is equivalent to a capacity of about 4 metres of tape material. Of course the value of that height may be larger or smaller than 2 metres, this being of influence only upon the head of the circulating pump P and upon the specific washing capacity of the unit.

A circulating pump P primes the liquid from the vat or booster B and conveys it under pressure by conduit means to the summit of the channel K from which, still under pressure, it flows off into said vat or booster B through the opened lower end on mouth aa; the liquid is taken up again by the pump P and put into circulation again.

A feed pipe (not shown) then provides continuous exchange of the bath to the desired extent, while an overflow applied to the vat or booster B eliminates the quantity of bath in excess.

The inlet and outlet of the tape with respect to the unit are shown at m and m and respectively defining the ascending and the descending section of material. It appears to be evident how even under zero speed condition of the tape there exists a relative motion between the liquid and the material if the circulating pump is in operation. At equal cross-section of passageway of the channel K, the higher the delivery of the pump P is, the greater is the relative speed of the liquid and of the material and, consequently, the more elevated is the specific washing effect.

Moreover, for a determined value of liquid speed in the channel, the washing power of the unit is a function of the length of time stay of the tape in the channel and is independent within wide limits of the speed with which said tape moves.

In particular, such independence is further assured by the fact that a higher relative speed of the liquid and tape in the section 1, where the tape ascends countercurrent to the liquid flow, is made up for in the section where the tape descends concurrent to the liquid flow, whence the average relative speed of the tape and liquid is a constant for every value prefixed of the delivery of the pump P.

A further increase of the turbulence and, consequently, of the washing eifect, is obtained by providing the channel K with the means constituting restricted throat portions D in FIGURE 1. Such restricted throat portions include a throttling member with guide vanes and are spaced along the inner periphery of the channel K, at which locations the liquid flow is made to assumeowing to the throttling of cross-sectiona speed value such that the pressure of said flow at that location descends below atmospheric. Under those conditions it is known that the so-called cavitation phenomenon takes place, which is characteristic in that it is accompanied by the formation of intense local turbulency.

As said hereinbefore, that phenomenon is in addition to the turbulence generated by the friction between the tape and liquid. The number of those throttling members finds sole limitation in the maximum power of the pump P to be iustallated, being a source of dissipation of the hydraulic energy supplied by said pump.

The capacity of the vat or booster B is so provided as to contain, while the pump is stopped, a liquid volume at least equal to that of the channel K. The level of the liquid in a static condition, therefore, is I1 while the level in 2 dynamic condition will be 12 W W are squeezer rollers for the dragging of the tape, which is guided by inlet and outlet rollers alignable with the passageways in the throat portions D and looped over the return roller to define a two pass arrangement for continuously moving the tape through the channel K.

For building and inspecting purposes the channel K is made in a number of sections p p joined with one another by means of bolts and rubber gaskets Z.

In order to increase the speed of the tape m, namely in order to increase the production of the plant at equal minimum washing effect needed, it will be possible to put a number of units in series, as indicated in FIGURE 3. Of course, if small daily outputs are required, the construction here illustrated affords the fundamental advantage of being employable as an individual unit at low or at very low speed, since as already said its efliciency is not tied up with the working speed, which is contrary to conventional constructions.

What I claim is:

In apparatus for treating fabric tape, the combination comprising (a) a substantially vertical tank having an opened upper end and a lower port means,

(b) said tank adapted to contain a fabric treating liquid,

(0) an elongated hollow channel member having an opened lower end disposed in said tank and an upper end extending vertically out of said tank,

(d) conduit means establishing communication between the lower port means of said tank and the upper end of said channel member,

(6) liquid circulation means in said conduit means adapted to continuously circulate the liquid from said tank to said channel member feeding back to said tank whereby said channel member is always filled with moving liquid,

(f) a plurality of restricted throat portions spaced vertically along the inner periphery of said channel member,

(g) each of said restricted throat portions including guide vanes horizontally spaced from each other on the inner periphery of said channel member and a throttling member disposed between said guide vanes to define upward and downward passageways,

(h) inlet and outlet guide rollers disposed in said tank adjacent the opened lower end of said channel memher,

(i) return roller means disposed in the upper end of said channel member,

(i) said inlet guide roller being aligned with the upward passageway of each restricted throat portion to define an upward pass for the fabric tape to said return roller means,

(k) said outlet guide roller being aligned with the downward passagewayof each restricted throat portion to define a downward pass for the fabric tape from said return roller means, and

(l) fabric tape moving means adapted to continuously move the fabric tape into said tank, through the upward and downward passes in said channel member and out of said tank.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 324,723 Patrick Aug. 18, 1885 1,074,567 Gantt Sept. 30, 1913 l,074,568 Gantt Sept. 30, 1913 2,313,006 Ufnowski Mar. 2, 1943 2,779,183 Fornelli Jan. 29, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 143,443 Great Britain May 27, 1920 1,172,166 France Oct. 13, 1958 

